Good news for Korea at last: 2013 Samsung Cup – Round of 16

The round of 16 of the 2013 Samsung Cup was played on October 8, 2013.

Four players from China and four from Korea progressed through to the quarter finals, which was regarded as a successful result for Korean players.

Going into the round of 16, 11 players were from China, and 5 players were from Korea, but the quarter finals will be evenly balanced at 4 vs 4.

As a result, it’s very likely that the sponsor, Samsung, will arrange four China vs Korea matches for the quarter finals.

Lee Sedol and Chen Yaoye rematch

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Lee Sedol 9 dan at the 2013 Samsung Cup.

The most interesting match from this round was the game between Lee Sedol 9p and Chen Yaoye 9p.

Lee and Chen played together recently in the final of 9th Chunlan Cup, as well as in the group stage of this tournament. Chen won both those games, so this was a revenge match for Lee.

The opening of the game was good for Lee, and he maintained his lead until the middle game. However, Chen caught up and reversed the game in the top right, at move 134.

After that, Lee started a ko at the bottom, and was eventually able to catch up again. In the end, Lee won by just half a point.

Other games

Park Junghwan 9p defeated Zhou Ruiyang 9p after capturing a big group at the top. Zhou tried to catch up afterwards, but was unsuccessful.

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Park Junghwan 9 dan (left) and Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan.

Ahn Seongjun 5p, who won the Price Information Cup last year, defeated Gu Li 9p. This was an unexpected result. Their game was full of fighting, and Ahn managed things very well and eventually won.

Kim Jiseok 9p defeated Fan Yunruo 4p and proceeded to the next round too.

Among the Korean players, only Park Younghun 9p lost his game. He was defeated by Tang Weixing 3p, who won the 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games in July this year.

Qiu Jun 9p, Shi Yue 9p and Wu Guangya 6p defeated Gu Lingyi 5p, Ke Jie 3p, and Li Xuanhao 3p respectively, and progressed to the next round.

A good opportunity for Korean players

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Playing room at the 2013 Samsung Cup.

The results from the round of 16 are highly satisfactory for Korean Baduk fans, because the top three Korean players all survived, but Shi Yue is the only Chinese representative who ranks within top 10 in China (Shi is currently ranked #3).

So far in 2013, there have been five major international tournaments and Chinese players won them all.

Korean players have won at least one international tournament for the last 18 years, and the Samsung Cup is their last chance to maintain this record.

Quarter finals draw

The draw for the quarter finals is as follows:

Kim Jiseok 9p vs Tang Weixing 3p
Lee Sedol 9p vs Qiu Jun 9p
Ahn Seongjun 5p vs Wu Guangya 6p
Park Junghwan 9p vs Shi Yue 9p

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2013 Samsung Cup quarter finalists. From left: Kim Jiseok, Tang Weixing, Lee Sedol, Qiu Jun, Ahn Seongjun, Wu Guangya, Park Junghwan and Shi Yue.

The Samsung Cup

The Samsung Cup first started in 1996 and uses a rather convoluted draw. Though, arguably, it is fairer than a straight knockout format.

The 32 players in the main draw are split into 8 groups of 4. Players must win two games in order to proceed from the first stage; two players from each group will advance to the knockout stage.

In some ways it’s similar to the group stage of the FIFA World Cup, except that only two wins are necessary to continue.

The round of 16 and the quarter finals are played as a straight knockout.

The semifinals and the final are played as a best of three matches.

The time limit for games is 2 hours and 5 x 1 minute byo-yomi.

Samsung is a well known Korean conglomerate.